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TROPICANA HOTEL Faces Its Final Sunset

Photographer/implosion enthusiast Greg C. looks back on the twilight years of ‘The Trop’…

2010

By the time you read this, Tropicana Hotel Casino will have seen its final sunrise. The historic resort at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue is scheduled to be imploded in the wee hours of October 9th, 2024. Another piece of Sin City history will be erased in the name of “progress”.

2008

Whether you are a sports fan or historian, there’s no denying that the decision to replace “the Trop” with a stadium for the Oakland Athletics baseball team is….controversial. Why? That particular section of the city has been an infuriating clusterfuck of traffic for years.

The Tropicana I-15 Interchange, officially dubbed “the gateway to the Las Vegas Strip”, has been under major construction for two years…so far. Nicknamed “Dropicana”, the project creates nonstop headaches through major delays, road rage, and serious accidents.

Screenshot via MLB.com

T-Mobile Arena and Allegiant Stadium are in the hotbed of this chaos. Continuous road and lane closures for Formula One add months of gridlock to the problem. Approving another massive building project in the most congested part of the city is, well…pure madness.

As you can tell, this writer is no fan of the Oakland A’s project. But the Tropicana’s demise has “brought out the kid” in photographer Greg C. My colleague has photographed numerous Las Vegas implosions through the years.  We first collaborated on the Riviera Hotel Casino implosion in 2016, and now we’re at it again.

2010

As it turns out, this isn’t the first time the Tropicana has faced explosive charges. Greg was there to capture it, and we have his rare footage:

‘In 2010 on Halloween, a “secret” implosion was in the works at the Tropicana. The old “300-wing” was being quietly prepped for an early November blast. Trop was under a massive renovation then and this section was in the way of a new entrance/porte cochere. It was not intended to blast this small 4-story structure, but an accidental collapse during a conventional demo nearly killed some workers.”
“Explosives were deemed a safer way to finish the job….. This activity was kept hush-hush by management–no news media alerts. However, certain friends I knew were “in-the-know”….. So about a week later, this half-building went down in history (little known) as Vegas’ smallest implosion.” – Greg C.

The Tropicana opened on April 4, 1957. Through the years it was home to superstar headliner acts. Greg has followed Tropicana’s demolition since its closing date was announced on April 2nd. He’s documented everything from the liquidation sale of furniture and fixtures to tree removal and stripping of the hotel’s exterior “skin”.

Despite his excitement over “the big boom”, I suspect my friend has also become a little nostalgic. His social media posts have been split between Tropicana memories and its demolition prep.

2016

May 10, 2024

June 2nd, 2024

July 13, 2024

July 19, 2024

September 20, 2024

October 1st, 2024

On October 6th, Mr. Clarke visited the Tropicana site to take some final photographs at twilight. Here’s what he shared with our readers:

As the sun sets a final time on Tropicana Las Vegas, Greg C. will prepare his equipment to record this historic event. We’ll have his exclusive photos and videos in an upcoming column.

All photos courtesy of Greg C. unless noted otherwise

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